What will Sheldon Brookbank's role be as Blackhawks assistant coach?

What will Sheldon Brookbank's role be as Blackhawks assistant coach?

The Blackhawks announced Friday that they have promoted Sheldon Brookbank to an assistant coach on Jeremy Colliton's staff after he had previously served in that same role for the Rockford IceHogs in the American Hockey League since the 2017-18 season.

Brookbank, 38, was a part of Colliton's staff in Rockford, where he helped lead the IceHogs to their first-ever Western Conference Finals berth last season. He also won a Stanley Cup as a player with the Blackhawks in 2013, a roster that included current members Corey Crawford, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook and Jonathan Toews.

"It's always been the plan," Colliton said. "I wanted Sheldon here from the beginning. [But we] had to stabilize Rockford, it's tough to lose two guys in a short time. Anders Sörensen has been able to be around more there and now able to take a bigger role, so that allowed us to get Sheldon here."

It's unclear what Brookbank's exact role will be, but his primary responsibilities in Rockford last year included working closely with the defensemen and penalty kill unit, so it wouldn't be surprising to see him assume those same duties in Chicago. For now, it'll be a tag-team approach.

The Blackhawks now have three assistant coaches in Brookbank, Don Granato and Barry Smith, but the plan is for Smith to oversee things from afar for the remainder of the season and will be transitioned back into his role as Director of Player Evaluation.

"I think it's always been the plan that eventually he'll move back to his previous role," Colliton said. "He's been here to help with the transition, help me get accustomed to the NHL level and he's been great. But not a long-term solution."

Replacing Brookbank with the IceHogs on interim coach Derek King's staff is Sörensen, who's in his fifth season as Chicago's development coach. His previous coaching experience includes being an assistant with the Swedish Hockey League's Södertälje from 2011-13 before serving as the interim head coach in October 2013.

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Blackhawks' Patrick Kane named NHL's third star after another monster week

Blackhawks' Patrick Kane named NHL's third star after another monster week

For the third time in a month, Patrick Kane has been named an NHL star of the week.

The 30-year-old Blackhawks winger received third star honors after recording 10 points (four goals, six assists) in three games.Kane kicked off the week with a four-point outing in New Jersey, where he scored two goals and had a pair of primary assists while logging a career-high 28:50 of ice time in an 8-5 loss to the Devils on Monday. He followed that up by registering an assist in a 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday.

Kane wrapped up the week with a five-point game on Sunday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals, scoring two goals and adding three assists in an 8-5 win during NBC's Game of the Week.

Kane's point streak is up to a season-long eight games. He has 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) over that span, and has moved up to fifth in the NHL with 70 points.

Islanders goaltender Robin Lehner was named the first star, respectively, after going 3-0-0 and stopping 65 on 67 shots for a .970 save percentage and 0.67 goals against average in three games while Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad was named the second star after having seven points (five goals, two assists) and scoring the game-winning goal in all three games.

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Here are four takeaways from the Blackhawks' 8-5 win over the Washington Capitals at the United Center on Sunday:

1. Dueling five-point games by 19 and 88

When you play the defending Stanley Cup champions, your top guys need to play like it. And the Blackhawks' did just that.

Reunited on the top line as the nuclear option, Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews each registsered five-point outings, with Kane having two goals and three assists and Toews netting a hat trick and two assists.

Toews also became the third active player to score at least 20 goals in his first 12 NHL seasons, joining Kane and Alex Ovechkin.

"We can play together for a long time and might not always get games like that, obviously," Toews said. "I think today the chances that we did get we converted and he was doing a good job in his own end chipping pucks out and their D men really pressuring, so we got some odd-man rushes. Drake [Caggiula] did a great job of going to the net and creating space. The two of us, Drake and I, know that it's kind of our game to go play puck possession and try to give it to Kaner when he has time and space. It was nice to see a bunch go in for us."

2. A whacky first period

We hope you didn't oversleep because there was a whole lot of action from the moment the puck dropped during NBC's Game of the Week.

The Blackhawks and Capitals combined for four goals in the first period, three of which were credited to Chicago but one that received a major assist from Washington after Dmitri Orlov swatted the puck into his own net. There was even a disallowed goal in there with Chris Kunitz scoring from underneath the net when the moorings were off, but it was reviewed and waved off.

The Blackhawks had three goals on five shots at one point for a shooting percentage of 60, and took a 3-1 lead into first intermission. The Capitals finished with one goal on 15 shots in the opening frame.

"It was a fun game," Kane said. "Kind of like a playoff-type atmosphere, playoff-type game. It was back and forth, it seemed like no matter how big our lead, we couldn't make it big enough to feel comfortable. Overall I think it was a good win for us."

3. A crazier second period

The first period was highly entertaining. But that was just a warm-up to what the second period offered. Because things got chippy.

Kane and Ovechkin were seen jawing at each other near center ice, which led to an exchange shortly after. Kane whacked Ovechkin, who responded by shoving Kane's helmet off. It eventually led to a larger scrum at the end of the shift, with Connor Murphy and Ovechkin getting penalized for roughing.

Less than one minute later, Tom Wilson laid a hit on Duncan Keith, which prompted longtime partner Brent Seabrook to come to his defense. That's when things went off the rails. Four penalties were assessed on the play, and each of them fell under a different category: roughing, unsportsmanlike conduct, hooking and slashing. At one point the Blackhawks had four skaters in the box before it was determined that Seabrook was not part of it.

In total, seven penalties were assessed in the second period and six of them came within a 39-second span. It had an old-time hockey feel to it.

"Yeah, there was a lot happening," coach Jeremy Colliton said. "But I think there was a lot happening the whole game, it just wasn't wasn't the second period. That third period pucks were going in the net like crazy also. Entertaining game. Hopefully the fans got their money's worth, but they still get to get home at a decent time."

4. Save of the Year?

Collin Delia was solid for the Blackhawks. He gave up a few goals from low-danger areas that he certainly would've loved to have back, but he made up for that by making the big stops from high-danger areas and at key times.

Most notably, Delia provided hockey fans with the potential Save of the Year candidate when he made an acrobatic stop on Wilson, which drew a standing ovation from the United Center crowd:

"Just trying to get something in front of the net, keep the puck out of the net at whatever cost," Delia said. "Just trying to fill space, quite honestly. I think it was a shot, guy wrapped it and I thought he was going to try to tuck it, so I just made a desperation [save] and then I had to somehow get to my feet or get to my knees again to seal the bottom of the ice."

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